Human attempts to control fluids dates back to the earliest civilizations, including ancient China, Mesopotamia, and ancient Egypt. The modern era generally begins with Benedetto Castelli, who in 1619 published a foundational book of hydrodynamics. Subsequently, Blaise Pascal invented the hydraulic press which multiplied a smaller force acting on a larger area into the application of a larger force totaled over a smaller area, transmitted through the same pressure (or same change of pressure) at both locations. Pascal's law or principle states that for an incompressible fluid at rest, the difference in pressure is proportional to the difference in height and this difference remains the same whether or not the overall pressure of the fluid is changed by applying an external force. This implies that by increasing the pressure at any point in a confined fluid, there is an equal increase at every other point in the container, i.e., any change in pressure applied at any point of the fluid is transmitted undiminished throughout the fluids.
Modern fluid regulating devices are frequently manually set to a desired pressure, then re-adjusted throughout the course of use at various other set pressures. If a new set pressure is below that of a previous regulated pressure setting, the operator is typically required to perform some manner of fluid bleed of the downstream system while also fine tuning the set pressure as desired. In many cases, however, the downstream system is sealed causing the operator to “break” connections or install an auxiliary bleed valve. Further, if it is desired to remove the regulator from the unregulated high pressure source after use, it is commonplace to again perform some manner of downstream fluid bleed in order to discharge high pressure fluid from within the regulator before removal. The continual setting and resetting of pressures and/or regulators is time consuming at best, and dangerous at worst.
Therefore, there remains a need to overcome one or more of the limitations in the above-described, existing art.
It will be recognized that some or all of the Figures are schematic representations for purposes of illustration and do not necessarily depict the actual relative sizes or locations of the elements shown. The Figures are provided for the purpose of illustrating one or more embodiments of the invention with the explicit understanding that they will not be used to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.